SOMERLED THE THANE OF ARGYLE. 155

The fire of the batteries upon the high curtain was direct- ed with admirable precision; and the troops advanced with perfect confidence. They struggled unremittingly for two hours to force the breach, and, taking advantage of some confusion occasioned by an explosion of ammunition within the ramparts, they redoubled their efforts, and by assisting each other got over the walls and ruins. After struggling about an hour among their works, the French retreated with great loss to the castle, leaving the town, which was now re- duced to a heap of ruins, in the possession of the assailants. This success was dearly purchased, the loss of the allies, in killed and wounded, being upwards of two thousand men. "Soult made an attempt to raise the siege, by crossing the Bidassoa on the very day the assault was made with a force

of nearly 40,000 men ; but he was obliged, after repeated attacks, to repass the river.

SOMERLED THE THANE OF ARGYLE.

SOMERLED is well known in tradition and history and song as the founder of the great family of Macdonald, Lords of the Isles. His grandfather held considerable possessions in the Western Highlands, but was expelled from them by the in , and took refuge Ireland ; and though he per- suaded the Macquarries and the MacMahons of that country to espouse his cause, and made an expedition with their assistance against his enemies, he had no success and was obliged to sit down in permanent poverty. Somerled's father and Somerled himself long remained in the poverty bequeath- retreat within the limits ed to them ; but sought an obscure

of their patrimonial territory, and lived in a cave, which is till pointed out as theirs, on the shores of Loch Linnhe. Somerled lived in great retirement, musing on the ruined fortunes of his house, and seemingly more inclined to indulge 156 THE SCOTISH WARS.

in melancholy than to watch an opportunity for enterprise or adventure; but, in the course of time, he was roused by an incitement from without, and suddenly proved himself to be a master of expedients and of intrigues and stratagems. The clan Maclnnes were at this time the early part of the twelth century occupants of a large portion of , and had suffered great disasters in withstanding repeated in- vasions of the marauding Norsemen, and were menaced witli another attack, and felt at their wits end for competent skill and resources to repel the foe. They held an assembly, and resolved to fight as one man, and to invite Somerled to organise them and lead them to battle. Their messengers found him angling in the Gear-Abhain. He heard them in silence; and remained silent and thoughtful for some time after they had ceased to speak; and at last observed that he was in pursuit of a sportive salmon, and that if he could suc- ceed in landing him, he would consider it a good omen. He hooked the fish, and, after following it through some bold plunges and struggles, brought it safely to the bank. But he angled not for mere amusement; and before going to the Maclnneses, he proceeded to his father's cave, there to present the food which he had obtained for his sustenance, and to make a due discharge of other filial home duties. Yet on parting with the messengers, he gave directions respecting a suitable place of muster, and commanded that a great num- ber of fires a number so great as to appear to the clansmen wonderful and mysterious should be lighted round their encampment during the following night, and added that, by the time of the completion of the arrangements, he should be amongst them to assume the generalship, and render them the best efforts of his skill. Somerled surveyed from a distance the host of invaders, and, concluding them to be vastly superior to the greatest force which he could oppose to them, he invented a strata- gem for deceiving them respecting his own numbers. A herd SOMERLED THE THANE OF ARGYLE. 157 of cattle lay depasturing in the neighbouring valley; and all these he ordered to be killed and skinned. He occupied a position which commanded a full view of the enemy's move- ments; and as soon as he saw them commence their march, he caused his small force to descend the eminence into a small glen at its base which opened toward the shore, to make a circuit thence round the further side of the hill, over its summit, and back again to the glen, and to repeat this movement several times continuously, so as to produce the appearance to the enemy of a numerous battalion. And then, ordering every man to wrap himself in an ox's hide, with the smooth side outward, he made the force repeat the same deceptive march, so as to produce the appearance of a to second numerous battalion ; and afterwards ordering them reverse the hides, turning the hairy side outward, he made them once more repeat the movement, so as to produce the appearance of a third and very savage-looking battalion. The stratagem succeeded. The Norsemen, supposing that a large and formidable army was descending upon them, fell into disorder, hesitated to stand, and gave way to panic; and Somerled and his associates rushed suddenly against them, and cut down their advanced body with great slaughter. Two of the Norse leaders, Borradill and Lundy. were slain in cor- ries which still bear their name; and a third, Stangadill, was so hotly pursued and so dreadfully terror-struck, that, in order to escape the sword, he leaped into a boiling linn, which is still called Eass Stangadill. Somerled followed up his first exploit with others of simi- lar daring and success; and, after struggling long with the Norsemen, he expelled them from a great extent of the Western Highlands, and made himself master of all Morvern, Lochaber, and northern Argyle; and not long afterwards, added to his other possessions the southern districts of that country. In the year 1035, when David I. expelled the Norwegians from Man, Arran, and Bute, Somerled appears 158 THE SCOTISH WARS. to have obtained a grant of those islands from the Kinj But finding himself still unable to contend with the Norwt gians of the Isles, whose power remained unbroken, he solved to recover by policy, what he despaired of acquiring by force of arms; and, with this view, he succeeded in ot taining by stratagem, the hand of the daughter of Olave, sur- riamed the Red, who was then the Norwegian King of the Isles. The lady thus fraudulently seized and forcibly mar- ried, brought him three sons, namely, Dugall, Reginald, and a he had one Gil- Angus ; and, by previous marriage, named lecallum.

The prosperous fortunes of Somerled at length inflamed his ambition. He had already attained great power in the Highlands; and success inspired him with the desire of ex- tending it. His grandsons having formerly claimed the earl- of their were now renewed and this dom , pretensions ; was followed by an attempt to put them in actual possession of their alleged inheritance. This attempt brought the Thane of Argyle into open rebellion against the King, and appears to have excited great alarm amongst the inhabitants of but Somerled a more ; encountering vigorous op- position than he had anticipated, found it necessary to return to the west, where the tyrannical conduct of his brother-in- law, Godred, who then wore the Norwegian crown of the Isles, had irritated his vassals and thrown every into confusion. Somerled's presence gave confidence to the party opposed to the tyrant; and Thorfinn, one of the most power- ful of the Norwegian nobles, resolved to depose Godred, and place another prince on the throne of the Isles. Somerled readily entered into the views of Thorfinn; and it was ar- ranged that Dugall, the eldest son of the former, should occu- py the throne from which his maternal uncle was to be displaced. But the result of the projected deposition did not answer the expectations of either party. Dugall was committed to the care of Thorfinn, who undertook to con- SOMERLED THE THANE OF ARGYLE. 159 duct him through the Isles, and compel the chiefs not only to acknowledge him as their sovereign, but also to give hos- tages for their fidelity and allegiance. The Lord of Skye, however, refused to comply with this demand, and, having fled to the , apprized Godred of the intended re- volution. Somerled followed with a fleet of galleys; and Godred having commanded his ships to be got ready, a bloody but indecisive battle ensued. It was fought on the night of the Epiphany; and as neither party prevailed, the rival chiefs next morning entered into a sort of compromise or conven- tion, by which the sovereignty of the Isles was divided, and two distinct principalities established. By this treaty Somer- led acquired all the islands lying to the southward of the pro- montory of , whilst those to the northward remained in the possession of Godred. But no sooner had he made this acquisition than he be- came involved in hostilities with the government. Having joined the powerful party in Scotland, which had resolved to depose Malcolm IV., and to place the boy of Egremont on the throne, he began to infest various parts of the coast, and for some time carried on a vexatious predatory warfare. failed The project, however, ; and Malcolm, convinced that the existence of an independent chief was incompatible with the interests of his government and the maintenance of pub- lic tranquillity, required of Somerled to resign his lands into the hands of the sovereign, and to hold them in future as a vassal of the crown. Somerled, however, was little disposed to comply with this demand, although the King was now preparing to enforce it by means of a powerful army. Em- boldened by his previous successes, he resolved to anticipate the attack; and having appeared in the Clyde with a consi- derable force, he landed at , where being met by the royal army under the command of the High Steward of Scotland, a battle ensued which ended in his defeat and death.

This celebrated chief has been traditionally described, as 160 THE SCOTISH WARS.

"a well tempered man, in body shapely, of a fair piercing eye, of middle stature, and of quick discernment.'' He ap- pears, indeed, to have been equally brave and sagacious, tempering courage with prudence, and, excepting in the last act of his life, distinguished for the happy talent, rare at any period, of profiting by circumstances, and making the most of success. In the battle of Renfrew his son Gillecallum perished by his side, leaving a son, Somerled, who succeeded to his grandfather's possessions.

THE WAILS OF YARROW.

THE Yarrow is a river of Selkirkshire, more celebrated in song than any other stream in Scotland. An idea of lugu- brious sadness is associated with much of its scenery, and with its early and chief historical reminiscence. What that reminiscence precisely is cannot be ascertained beyond the general tradition of a deadly feud, which terminated in the death of two antagonist lords or leaders, and in the rude in- humation of the bodies of their slain followers in a marshy pool called the Dead-lake. Yet some have identified it witli a duel fought between John Scott of Tushielaw and his brother-in-law Walter Scott of Thirlestane, a duel which was fatal to the latter, but is ascertained to have been fought on Deuchar-swire, at a considerable distance; others suppose it to have been a fray at a hunting-match in Ettrick-forest, which issued in the slaughter of a son of Scott of Harden, residing at Kirkhope, by his kinsman Scott of Gilmans- three cleuch ; and a few, including two or of eminent cele- brity, refer it to the murder of some distinguished gentleman " or other by a person of the name of Annan. In a spot called Annan's Treat," says Sir Thomas Dick Lander, "a huge monumental stone, with an eligible inscription, was disco- vered, which is supposed to record the event of a combat, in